DSLR Help

[RabbieBurns]

Ive been given a Canon EOS 40D camera and I have no idea how to use it.

Is there any online tutorials on how to use this. I know you can do a whole college degree in photography but Im just looking to be able to take some nice shots.

At the moment when its on Auto the photos dont look any better than my cheapy $100 sony point and shoot.

[plexer]

Aperture and shutter priority are the 2 modes you want to look into.

Otherwise use the mode selectors for portrait, sport etc... to at least give the camera an idea of what you're pointing it at.

Ben

[Arthur]

This guide may be a good starting point...

Photography Tutorial: A Quick Guide to Understanding Your DSLR Camera « Kevin & Amanda

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks that looks very useful. I want to be able to take photos of waves and stars and stuff so the info about long exposure helps. Will post my results for you all to laugh at

[RabbieBurns]

Took about 1000 photos this afternoon and managed to get these couple. I still had to go into photoshop afterwards and adjust the white balance to 'auto':


_MG_4626.JPG_MG_4627.JPG_MG_4709.JPG_MG_4633.JPG_MG_4697.JPG

On Saturday Im going on a helicopter tour of the city, its forecast for a bright sunny day. What setting would I put it on to take photos of the city sky line, buildings, sea, etc?

[Love_Sausage]

I can highly recommend this book, it was recommended to me and it got my head around exposure and the balance between shutter and aperture:

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera: Amazon.co.uk: Bryan Peterson: Books

As for your helicopter ride, shutter priority mode might be the way to go, keep the shutter speed as high as you can without underexposing the photographs to minimise movement blur.

Also, once you get into your camera more you will want to consider shooting in RAW and getting more in depth with editing using Adobe Lightroom or Aperture. The difference it can make to that one picture in the hundred you took that you actually like can be huge.

[RabbieBurns]

the file format at the moment is .CR2

How do I make it RAW ?

[LosOjos]

When I started out in photography, I found flickr to be an incredibly useful resource. You can search for photos similar to what you have in mind, then view the EXIF information to see what aperture, shutter speed and ISO the photographer used. I found that invaluable in improving my own skills. There are also a ton of groups you can join focusing on every subject you can imagine, and if you put the time in finding good, active groups then you can learn a lot from conversation there too.

Another book recommendation is this one: Collins Complete Photography Course: Amazon.co.uk: John Garrett, Graeme Harris: Books
It's laid out as though you were studying a course in photography (even has projects for you to do) and will teach you all the core concepts. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[LosOjos]

the file format at the moment is .CR2

How do I make it RAW ?

CR2 is RAW. Each manufacturer has their own file format for RAW, that is Canon's (I own a 40D too)

[Neil-Millgate]

I found this forum to be massivly helpful - www.talkphotography.co.uk/

Pros and amateurs alike all willing to share tips and tutorials for you.

To be fair, with the helicopter ride, stick it in auto and let it do the work. You just focus on composition of the shots. You will enjoy the flight a lot more and getting composition right is more important early on than learning about f stops and dof.

[pcstru]

Some good info already. My arbitrary tips :

1. Get a tripod. Use it.
2. Experiment but take notes (you need to remember what you were doing - so you can see the difference). i.e. stick camera on tripod and take 10 photos of a subject altering the aperture a stop at a time.
3. Clarity/Sharpness relies on three factors : Most important is the lens (glass). There is some rubbish out there that will never give you a sharp picture (sometimes that can be a good thing - in portraiture, people generally aren't impressed by detailed reproduction of their skin pores). Most glass is really sharp only at particular apertures - usually stopped down a bit. It's worth experimenting with your lens to see where this is. Second is movement, a tripod will generally eliminate it as a factor but always be wary of large 'zoom' in low light. The last and least important factor is the actual focus.
4. Establish a procedure - Get camera out, switch on, check settings; Quality, ISO, Whitebalance, shutter mode etc. The aim is that you never come back from a difficult shot (dangling 200ft off a cliff only to discover later that you were shooting at ISO 25 with a custom white balance suitable only for blue led's).
5. For night shots of stars or the moon, google "barn door mount".
6. Take lot's of pictures!

[pantscat]

Here's a tip - don't use auto, or the flash will keep randomly popping up when you least want it to. Stick it on "P" instead (same as auto, but with no auto-flash)... take loads of snaps, pick out the ones you like most and then look at the EXIF data - from here you'll start to see the correlation between the aperture and shutter speed and the effects it has on an image.

As someone else has already said Talk Photography™ is a very useful resource. Personally I did a two-day getting started course about two years ago which was really useful to get up and running.

Also - get a copy of Lightroom - if you're shooting in RAW (cr2) then the images will likely look quite "flat" without some sort of processing. This is one of the most important things I learned... subtle post-processing can make an average image look rather acceptable.

[JJonas]

I like the first picture with the blurred water over the rocks (caused by a slower shutter speed) get a tripod or a bean bag and try using a slower shutter speed to get similar shots with things that are moving.

if you are hand holding and don’t want a blurred photo as a rule of thumb don’t use a shutter speed lower than the maximum focal length of the lens you have attached.

some links

Rule of thirds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Golden Section and Rule of Thirds (Golden Mean, Golden Ratio, Golden Spiral, Golden Proportion, Golden Triangles).

Canon EOS 40D Online Manual (1/11) - YouTube

40D Owners manual pdf

[sted]

Here's a tip - don't use auto, or the flash will keep randomly popping up when you least want it to.

i shoved a hotshoe mount spirit level there that stops the flash lol

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks some really good advice. Ill print off the manaul tomorrow.

Ive already got a tripod, those waves shots were using the tripod, the ISO set to auto, and then experimenting with various settings for whatever the other numbers are.

Just took some off my balcony, these ones seemed to turn out quite well with long exposure. Its cloudy tonight so no stars to look for.

_MG_4720.jpg_MG_4721.jpg

Im going to set my alarm early and see if I can get some nice sunrise photos.